SCULPTURE IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Artist Heather Phillipson on her work ‘The End’ coming to the Fourth Plinth

Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth has long been a bastion of provocative sculpture, and new installation The End by British artist Phillipson is sure to turn heads: the cherry and fly atop its swirl of whipped cream (below) is joined by a drone that links to a live feed. The artist reveals all...

As a site of mass gathering, Trafalgar Square is, inevitably, politicised. To be able to place an artwork here, without any of the framework of a gallery, chanced upon by people and pigeons who might hang out with it (or couldn’t care less) is thrilling.

The End is my ongoing preoccupations rolled into one huge lump. Themes of banality, cliché, insidious power structures, our relationship to other forms of creaturely life, catastrophe. But I don’t like to pre-empt reactions to my work, they are all valid. Working on my book has been a real gift. It’s become almost another kind of collage, a conglomeration of things I’ve worked on over several years – videos, sculptures, installations, sketches, scripts and poems. I’m working towards the Duveen Galleries commission for Tate Britain. It’s a vast video, sculpture and music project in June 2020. I’m also working on a new audio commission for Radio 3, plus an ‘Elevator GIF’ for the Museum of Moving Image in Queens, New York. Working across different media means I can always – mercifully – escape from one to another! ‘Heather Phillipson’ edited by Leila Hasham (Prestel, £35) is out 5 March. The End arrives at the Fourth Plinth on 26 March; heatherphillipson.co.uk